From staff, AP reports
news@joplinglobe.com
PICHER, Okla. — Two members of Oklahoma’s congressional delegation have secured an additional $9.5 million to relocate residents living in the Tar Creek Superfund Site in the Picher-Cardin area.
The funds are expected to narrow the amount needed to finish the voluntary move.
“By working together, we can ensure Oklahoma will no longer have the distinction of hosting one of the most severe Superfund sites in the country,” said Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., who was joined by Rep. Dan Boren, D-Okla., on Tuesday in making the announcement.
Boren said the money will provide those living within the 40-square-mile area in the former lead and zinc mining field “the opportunity for a brighter future.”
“I would like to thank the residents for their patience during this process,” he said.
Of the money announced this week, $3.5 million is part of a recent earmark Inhofe obtained, and the rest is being provided by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency through a change in the law that is expected to make future earmarks unnecessary.
An Inhofe aide said more money will be needed, but not much more.
Oklahoma Secretary of Environment J.D. Strong, in a telephone interview Wednesday, said the money is now available to the Lead-Impacted Communities Relocation Assistance Trust. He said he expects no interruption in the buyout of families in Picher and Cardin.
He said the trust has not in recent weeks taken a snapshot of where the buyout is in terms of how much more money might be needed to complete the project. In July, the trust estimated that it needed $24 million to complete the job.
“It looks like we might need an additional $14 million to $15 million to complete the job,” Strong said. “We are spending about $2 million a month, so this money will take us to the end of the year.”
Inhofe and EPA officials continue to work together to ensure funding for the project to relocate residents from lead-polluted and undermined homes in Ottawa County.
The EPA has worked with federal, state and tribal partners for almost three decades to clean up the Tar Creek site.
The area includes the communities of Cardin, Hockerville and Picher. It was the site of decades of lead and zinc mining, and has been plagued by mine collapses, open mine shafts, acid mine water that stains Tar Creek orange and mountains of lead-contaminated mine waste called chat.
Local children repeatedly test high for dangerous levels of lead in their blood.
Another blow
The region suffered another blow on May 10 when a strong tornado flattened much of Picher, resulting in seven deaths.
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